Recent Articles

Maine Mural Interviews Rep. Seth Berry

Maine Mural host Dylan C. sits down with State Rep. Seth Berry to discuss legislation that would have allowed Mainers to vote whether they want a statewide consumer-owned...

Crash Course pt. IV: Socialism & Internationalism

This is the fourth and final installment of Maine DSA's Crash Course series. This series focused on introducing different topics related to socialism. One aim of this...

Portland Charter Commission Gains Control Over $75K Budget

A scheduled meeting between City Manager Jon Jennings and several Charter Commissioners was cancelled after budget questions the Commission sought to have answered were...

Crash Course pt. III: Socialism & Oppression

The Maine chapter of Democratic Socialists of America has put together an introductory crash course series on socialism and how it interacts with various topics. This is a...

Tahmoor Khan speaks about racist attack in Bangor

On Friday night, August 20, two individuals committed a hate crime against Tahmoor Khan and his family, spray painting racist graffiti on his car and destroying the family...

Review: Opera Maine returns with a sparkling Elixir

Sharky is a Maineiac from Portland rambling about all things art, and music of every stripe, including rock, progressive, jazz, symphonic, Lieder... and food, too. He writes...

We can no longer ignore the fascist movement festering in Maine communities

Andy O’Brien is communications director at Maine AFL-CIO. He has written extensively about far-right extremism in Maine for The Free Press and Mainer News Cooperative. This...

Advocating for minor leaguers’ work

The following was originally published by Marc Normandin on June 30th, 2021 via his Patreon Newsletter. It is reprinted here with permission from the author. Sea Dogs fans,...

Portland Charter Commissioners seek budget clarity from City Manager

On Monday, August 11, the Portland Charter Commission met remotely to define the roles of Officers, adopt Community Agreements, and establish sub-committees responsible for...

As Delta variant surges, anti-vaccine protesters march

Howa Mohamed shared this video and commentary with Pine and Roses' readers after witnessing an August 14 march in Portland, Maine protesting Gov. Janet Mills's Covid-19...

Maine DSA presents: Socialism 101 Crash Course

Maine Democratic Socialists of America presents: Socialism 101 Crash Course. This video is part of a series designed to introduce new DSA members and anyone who's curious to...

Black artist’s work set ablaze in Portland

At the beginning of August, an art installation in Congress Square in Portland called New Rhythms was set on fire. The artist, Jordan Carey, got the call as he was about to...

DSA Convention 2021: big accomplishments and the long road ahead

The Democratic Socialists of America has grown to 95,000 members in 2021, up from less than 10,000 in 2016. It is now the most important socialist organization in the United...

Tenants Unions: how to form them, how to use them, and how they’ve won

The CARES Act eviction moratorium has expired, but the CDC has issued an extension for counties where there are high transmission rates of COVID-19 under pressure from...

Maine allocates $20 million for green housing construction

The commodification of housing under capitalism means that affordable housing developers often view affordability and sustainability as mutually exclusive goals. To cut...

Racist “Proud Boys” not welcome in Portland

July 31 was a sweltering Saturday afternoon, but the crowd across from Mathew’s Pub kept growing as people gathered to protest the bar which has become a monthly meeting...

Whole Foods, Covid hazard pay, and the Maine Supreme Court

On July 6, the Maine Supreme Court ruled that People First Portland’s measure to mandate hazard pay for workings during a declared emergency was constitutional. However, the...

Maine socialists study Marx and the market

“Digestion takes something more than a good stomach,” Karl Marx wrote. In a June 28 presentation on economics organized by the Maine Democratic Socialists of America, Howard...

Mike Sylvester on landmark bills and Mills’s veto machine in the Maine Legislature

Pine and Roses’ Todd Chretien sat down with Maine State Representative Mike Sylvester (District 39, Portland) who serves as House chair of the Joint Standing Committee on...

Will Gov. Mills’s veto pen open the door to LePage?

Gov. Janet Mills deserves more thanks than most governors for her competency in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. There’s little doubt that her steady hand reduced the...

Solving the Eastern Prom’s food truck trash problem

The City of Portland and food truck owners are overlooking simple and sustainable solutions in their escalating showdown over trash on the Eastern Promenade. If you haven’t...

Janet T. Mills v. the Penobscot Nation: who will protect the river?

How is it possible that in 2021 an American court helped the state of Maine steal from a federally recognized tribe? The answer is both frustrating and infuriating. A...

Maine DSA Convention delegates: empowering the working class

The Democratic Socialists of America will hold its bi-annual National Convention August 1 to 8, bringing together more than 1,000 delegates from across the country...

Open letter to Gov. Mills from Maine state workers

The Maine Service Employees Association, SEIU Local 1989, represents over 13,000 workers, including workers in all three branches of Maine State Government. Pine and Roses...

Maine’s labor shortage demands more than a $15 wage

Have you noticed all the “Help Wanted” signs? Businesses limiting their hours or offerings, or closing altogether, because they are short-staffed? Service workers who are...

Maine Service Employees Association demands a fair shake from Gov. Mills

For the members of Maine Service Employee Association, SEIU local 1989, one of Maine’s largest unions representing more than 12,000 of the state's employees, the issue is...

Critical Race Theory, Republican smears, and history in schools

Over the past few months, conservatives have manufactured a new bogeyman that looms over public education: Critical Race Theory (CRT). According to their narrative, CRT...

Say their names. Correctly. Portland Charter Commissioners on linguistic racism

Portland voters elected a City Charter Commission in early June which may reshape democratic structures and influence who holds power in Portland for a generation or more....

What and Why a Third Reconstruction?

On May 25, 2021, Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) introduced the “Third Reconstruction Resolution” in the U.S. Congress. Within a month, nearly forty of the 438 members of...

Understanding economics: Where to begin

This article previews the author’s upcoming presentation on “Marx and the Market” for Maine DSA’s Socialism 101 series. The event will be held via Zoom on Monday, June 28...

What Mainers can do for Palestine

You might have seen the recent clamorings for US citizens to denounce the state of Israel and oppose its ongoing brutality against Palestinians. In response, you may have...

Interview: Bates Leftist Coalition on fighting Israeli apartheid

Sheikh Jarrah is a neighborhood in East Jerusalem, Israel. The population largely consists of Palestinians who were forcibly expelled from Jerusalem’s Talbiya neighborhood...

Got Justice? Milk, farm workers, and Hannaford

Hannaford is Maine’s second-largest employer with roughly 10,000 workers spread out over sixty-three stores. The chain has deep roots in Maine and is still headquartered in...

Homelessness in Maine is exhausting

As the cost of living goes up, wages remain stagnant, and eviction moratoriums are lifted, a slew of individuals are becoming homeless. Homelessness does not discriminate—it...

Landlords Resist Granting Tenants Rights

On Wednesday, June 16, 2021, Justice Marygay Kennedy heard oral arguments in Portland’s Maine Superior Court for a case that cuts to the heart of the new rent control law in...

Solidarity with Nasreen, fight for a radical charter

It’s been a rough year for the Chamber of Commerce and its friends at City Hall. Last November, Portland voters passed four referenda providing for a $15 an hour wage,...

Drug Policy Reform in Maine

A number of great drug sentencing reform bills have been making their way through the Maine legislature this session, which has given the Maine DSA’s Drug Policy...

Full legislature to vote on public power ballot

LD 1708, An Act To Create the Pine Tree Power Company, a Nonprofit Utility, To Deliver Lower Rates, Reliability and Local Control for Maine Energy Independence, sponsored by...

One Mainer’s abortion story, Part 2

One Mainer’s abortion story, Part 2 While Maine has some of the least restrictive abortion laws in the nation, the anti-Roe v. Wade majority on the Supreme Court and a raft...

Maine socialists talk drug policy

Pine and Roses and the Maine Mural podcast are proud to announce a little socialist media mutual aid. We'll be sharing resources, people power, research, interviews, and...

One Mainer’s abortion story, Part 1

While Maine has some of the least restrictive abortion laws in the nation, the anti-Roe v. Wade majority on the Supreme Court and a raft of anti-choice legislation from...

Portland for Palestine

The state of Israel’s recent attacks against Palestinians was sparked by the attempt to forcibly remove Palestinian families from their homes in the East Jerusalem...